By Shaenon K. Garrity

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All I remember about this strip is that it took forever to draw, by my standards. I mean, I drew that door four times. That’s, like, four doors!

Artie’s relatively new job as Helen’s lab assistant continues when he’s not in human form, apparently.

Yeah, so over in Skin Horse, Unity is a construct zombie with a cloned brain. Her brain apparently came from the DNA of a top assassin which was sold to the government by a mad scientist. And that’s all I have to say about that, except that it’s nice when everything falls together so neatly.

Aw, I like this one. I probably should have drawn more one-off gags about Artie changing form. Speaking of which, his earlier efforts to control his shapeshifting through Zen meditation must have paid off, because he seems to have a handle on it now.

From here to the end of the week is a plot-heavy, foreshadowing-heavy sequence of strips, and it was hard to make it funny. Funny and ominous don’t go all that well together. But this strip is pretty good, mainly because I enjoyed drawing Artie being exasperated.

Helen looks like she can’t believe she did it herself.

A while back, I commented that the main point-of-view character changed from Dave to Artie around the end of “Lovelace Affair.” You can really tell in a sequence like this, which is basically Artie dealing with the issue of What to Do About Dave.

I don’t know what the little logo on his T-shirt is. I should have thought of something clever, but Artie doesn’t seem like the type to wear clever T-shirts. By the time of Skin Horse, he’s taken to wearing shirts advertising the various causes he earnestly supports, probably acquired as freebies for volunteering to collect signatures outside the Berkeley Bowl, but at this point in his life he doesn’t have those.

End of the year, 2005! I can’t believe we’re already entering the final year. I’m getting teary-eyed…

All hopes that Unity would not turn out to be related to Mell on more than just a conceptual level were as futile as they were ignorant of our author’s nefarious whims.

What does it say of Helen that Mell is suddenly “ones”? Any moment now she’ll be mentally demoted to “the office intern” and jotted down on a resupply form.

Stunned Penultimate Panels: 49. It’s really quite improbable that Helen vacuumed up every hair and spit glob the girl ever shedded and hocked – what she really means is she sold the IP rights of her genome to the goverment.

M is for Munitions that she smuggled …E is for Explosions in the field …L is for the Law books that she studied …O is for the Ordinance she’d wield …D is for her DNA we sold off …Y, she went up Yonder Yesterday …Put them all together, she’s the MotherOf Unity, who’s built to slay!

Sisters, sistersWe’re a scary pair of killer sistersI can fight ’til every foe is overthrownI’m just like her: my brain’s a clone!

Caring, sharingDNA of which you should be-waringI’ll be President and bring apocalypseI can sew on new nips and hips

We’re very violentAnd rarely silentWe’ll challenge you to a brawlWe haven’t met yetBut, if we do, betOn mayhem that ends us all

Helen NarbonSold some DNA to make a carbonMany men have tried to beat them up, but they’re all deadLord help us all shouldThese two join their forces for no good‘Cuz I’m an assassinAnd I’m gonna nom on your head!

Helen, listen to me …You’ve been at work for a year!Stand there, looking gloomy …Why are you keeping Dave here?Look, we’re getting nowhere!No use to stand about,At you I’m shouting!Staring blankly through me …You have succeeded, you fear!

Look for a cure now,And you say you’ve found it!You say you’re sure now,There’s no two ways around it!You’ve got a potion, and madness it’s destroying!With my emotions, are you simply toying?Are you enjoying the sound?(Meh, meh … melodious?)